Hello im in london this is the news hour coming up walking into a diplomatic minefield pope francis touches down in myanmar meets military leaders accused of ethnic cleansing. Flights canceled a hundred thousand people evacuated indonesias mount a good and really maybe about to blow. Up an election upset in honduras t. V. Host turn opposition into salvador and us trial attacks a surprise lead in the president ial poll and the United Kingdom prepares for another Royal Wedding as prince harry announces his engagement to the american actress meghan marco. Im joined again with the sports. The first ashes test and are grounded by the management as the behavior of one of the players in australia drills attention away from the pitch. Man in charge of mammals military crackdown against range of muslims has denied that religious discrimination exists in his country general men our ally made the comments in a Facebook Post off dolling a last minute meeting with pope francis head of Catholic Churches on his first visit to myanmar is known to be sympathetic to the ranger but has been advised to avoid using the town. Has more from young. Word coming out late on monday here the first day of the popes visit to myanmar that he met with the commander in chief general men now this is a meeting that was supposed to take place on thursday caught some people off guard because this word came out late on monday that was originally described as a rest day for the pope now. The general posted statement on his Facebook Page say they met for about fifteen minutes now he said also create in that meeting he got across the idea he said to the pope that there wasnt religious discrimination in the country the Vatican Press office said that the discussed several issues and that the pope got across to the general that there is great responsibility for the authorities here in myanmar during this transition period no theres no word from either side if the range issue was brought up now obviously thats a very sensitive topic during the popes visit here now on tuesday the pope will travel to naples or the capital where hell meet with the civilian leader and other members of the government and other members of the religious affiliations now itll be interesting to see how those meetings go and if theyll be any mention of or hinted but this first high level meeting that the pope had unexpected high level meeting the pope had with the commander in chief of the military no mention of a hinge of but well see if that changes when the pope goes the neighborhood or on tuesday. Father thomas reese is a jazz priest and author of the book inside the vatican the politics and organization of the Catholic Church and joins me live now from washington d. C. Thanks very much for speaking to us and as were hearing now we very much. Sympathy. In the cold there and his brothers and sisters will he cave in to pressure on this trip. I dont think so but hes in a very delicate situation as you said his heart is really with refugees and especially the refugees who have suffered such terrible persecution what the United Nations is called ethnic cleansing. He is his heart is with them on the other hand. There is the concern among the christians in me and maher that if he speaks out too strongly to forcefully there could be a backlash against the christians there who are already suffering persecution from from the military and from the government so hes in a very difficult position if hes if hes prophetic there could be a backlash if he doesnt speak out he he will be criticized for not coming to the defense of these people who are being persecuted how serious a dilemma is that not just in diplomatic terms but morally as well how does the vatican approach a situation where the two percent segment of the population in the country that is catholic could face a backlash way that up against the of the half a million range as whove been forced to flee a campaign of ethnic cleansing in bhutan ety. Well its a very difficult situation i mean i know that the pope would be happy to speak out if it was only him that suffered then you know that he would he would do that in a flash but its one thing to be prophetic when you suffer the consequences of it its another thing to speak out and be critical of a government when other people are going to be are going to suffer from what you say so i think what the pope is going to try and do is make his points pretty clearly but in a way that no one can can organize against but because thats the real fear is that these radical Buddhist Monks will organize people into a persecution of both the rowing and the christians and to increase it even more than it is already and yet we know that the government in myanmar. Take offense. They have they dont use it as a means of denying the status and legitimacy of these people so real implications to that would sorry to all skew such a specific question but do you think the pope will use the time range on this trip. Well were going to have to wait and see its going to be very interesting to see if he uses that word. You know and also the other thing that hes going to do is when he visits in bangladesh hes going to visit with. Refugees and that is very important because he wants to bring the meat the attention of the world. Especially the International Community on the just terrible condition that these refugees are are living in this is something that you know the the World Community needs to get its act together and come to these to the aid of these people who are suffering so badly this is Something Else that the pope can do well thank you very much really appreciate your thoughts on this story father thomas reese now indonesia has raised its a lot of bodies not volcano to the highest level warning its first major eruption in fifty full years could be imminent one hundred thousand people have been ordered to evacuate an expanded danger zone and the Main International airport has been closed mama jan jhoom has more. It could lead to a major eruption at any moment thats what indonesian officials are saying about the volcano on the island of Bali Mount Agung has been rumbling and spewing ash into the atmosphere since the weekend on monday a Mass Evacuation was ordered and the danger zone was expanded you know not on the jetty the possibility of a large eruption is very high some indications show they will indeed be an eruption since yesterday the eruption that happened has been accompanied by the sound of explosions and vibrations that can be heard and felt within a distance of twelve kilometers. Indonesian Officials Say they will continue to search all the villages in the area and force residents to evacuate if need be. Until now based on incoming reports that eruptions and trim is continuous and the love is filling the crater the lava will flow down the slopes to the crater is full. Balis International Airport was closed hundreds of flights were canceled and tens of thousands of travelers were stranded after tests indicated ash had reached its airspace. Everything you can get like that. Bali is the top Tourist Destination in indonesia and plays host to millions of visitors each year the volcano last erupted in one thousand nine hundred sixty three when more than one thousand people were killed mohammad. Vulcanologist ralph says he expects more explosive activity at mt. Actually reawakened about two months ago and where we observed a lot of earthquakes happening inside a volcano telling us that mag most moving molten rock a mark most moving inside a volcano towards the surface with them saw the first start of eruptions a few days ago and the first eruptions were actually what we call free arctic eruptions meaning it was just steam eruptions from heated up water inside of ok no by the hot magma the last eruption or explosion just yesterday seemed to have been on a different kind does seem to have been fresh molten rock or magma involved in that explosion so what were seeing here at the moment is sort of the beginning or the likely beginning of an eruption which of course could have more explosions in the near future and potentially also a more intensified explosive activity. The results have given honduras Opposition Leader a shot need in the president ial election supporters of celebrating off the announcement from the electoral votes in one half of the votes counted he has a lead of forty five to forty eight percent current present one arlanda hand as was expected to comfortably win a second time in a publicly optimistic round of sanchez is in the capital and joins us now in marianna why are people protesting outside the electoral tried to you know. Well mary have a good mix of approaches and the calibration now we are all cried to be electoral tribunal that hundreds of people supporters of. Come here. Go in firecrackers. Celebrating their thinking the National Anthem and there are. With the president. Corps people how little bit desperate because its been thirteen more than thirteen hours in the park you know the last three to. End of this election and still there are no results were here were focused a lot of people that ordinator the government course. Thank you for. Coming. So its been more than twenty four hours now since the polls have closed this is usually when beyond the time that we expected at least a very clear. What the results were about and we have no such thing right now being announced by the tribunal. And we are very confident that we have the seven point. Seven percent of the ballots by now that it will fall and perhaps. No one to be sure that what theyre doing is right hopefully that would be the case if you. Yes ordinary never happened and that is why people of course obviously do not trust the institutions anymore are becoming anxious about it and what theyre demanding is a result you know in a whole day after the election and what we want to know that we have been we are the winners of this election. I think that this is actually a political strategy a delay strategy by the president to try to negotiate we know we have spoken with the cardinal authorities and they have assured us that there is no way to reverse the advantage that the alliance was in the last few days or weeks if you will. Have said that there was a possibility that the elections would be right you and your fellow whom. Telling us that yes. But the trend in favor of. What happened. What happened was that people came out to vote and they did so massively and they did so. And that way we were able to defeat the fraud and thats exactly what we were calling for we knew that this was going to be rigged from the beginning. To make that are around two hundred thousand votes have been taken away by the fraud and you would have a one hundred thousand vote advantage at the moment. Never held a post. In office. Can you just briefly tell us why did people vote for him they voted for him. Exactly you can outsider hes not a conventional politician thank you very much back to you Marian Wright and for him sanchez thank you very much for the latest on the election in honduras much more to tell you about in the news the case of the. U. S. Sanctions against iran how to stay. State sanctioned harassment under Robert Mugabe drive hundreds of farmers from that land in rural zimbabwe. Sports ill be here to tell you why hes had to run for. Presenting me. But just as in pakistan officially ended the capital islamabad after the law minister gave in to that demands and resigned ive been calling for head hammy to step down over the wedding of a parliamentary bill which they describe as blasphemous same astronomy reports from. After more than three weeks this sit in has turned into a celebration oh yeah supporters of pakistans blasphemy laws were able to force the government into giving in to their demands not only has the federal law minister step down but the government of pakistan muslim noon has also agreed to investigate itself. A crowd of just thousands brought cities of millions to a standstill here by choking a main artery in and out of the capital city and this really is becoming a common way and all too common a way of achieving any kind of power here in pakistan by being a Destructive Force on the streets and effectively laying siege to islamabad and then making political demands but the threat of force leaders of this fringe group have been bolstered by their newfound influence on the countrys Political Affairs pakistan was great on the basis of the belief that there is no god but allah and mohammed is the messenger of allah we know that for seventy years food has been committed against the religion so now we should place religion on the throne. The man at the center of all this a one time preacher at a mosque in lahore he was removed by that citys governing religious body for his hardline views hes built his support base. By being a stanch advocate for the countrys blasphemy laws hes even run for a seat in parliament so whats next for this fledgling Political Party ask the crowd and the answer is more or less stay the same ok they are the latest whatever guidelines thank you both and we will follow accordingly come out of Going Forward whatever already just tell us to do we are completely out there service paramilitary units were on standby to prevent any more unrest and while protest leaders agreed to end their sit in hours later people here were still not ready to leave and more demonstrators were right. Its the kind of do or die loyalty to Political Parties campaigned for decades to achieve something rizvi has been able to accomplish in a few months just ahead of next years elections zain basra islam about at least eleven civilians have died in a suicide bombing in the iraqi capital baghdad at least nine others were wounded in the attack which targeted a market in the now one area and one khan has no what the sources are telling us is that all after the explosion took place a small improvised explosive device that a number of gunmen at least full they say fired from the rooftops of buildings adjacent to the market thats where we saw a lot of those thats taking place now we are hearing that i still have claimed responsibility for this is attack now this will shock a number of people in baghdad i guess it was going through a relative he read of car in the last major Suicide Attack like this that we saw a bombing that we saw was actually in may you know that happiness you very small incidents outside of baghdad in the south but nothing in the south of baghdad story but nothing the scale of this. A talk to charged with conspiring to evade u. S. Sanctions against iran will not go on trial in new york this week reza dropped out of sight in the two months leading up to a scheduled trial prompting turkeys Prime Minister to suggest that hes reached a plea deal with the u. S. Authorities jabber tansey has moved from washington. President. Of turkey has repeatedly trying to get this trial scrapped lobbying then Vice President joe biden and twenty sixteen and President Trump in september of this year he maintains of this is a politically motivated prosecution intended to discredit and ultimately overthrow his government on behalf of her to and islamic cleric who lives in pennsylvania to learn. These steps are purely political i hope well get a chance to discuss this issue the United States needs to revise this decision there are very peculiar smells coming from this issue. But drug prosecutors have dismissed that contention and in Court Filings say they anticipate that the evidence introduced at trial will show that the turkish government and banking officials were integra to the sanctions evasion scheme raisers are is among several turkish men charged with operating a billion dollar Money Laundering scheme to evade u. S. Sanctions against iran only two of the accused are in u. S. Custody however there is widespread speculation that zurab has flipped and is not cooperating with the prosecution he was abruptly released from prison in early november his whereabouts publicly unknown Authorities Say he remains in federal custody and thats led to speculation that he entered the Witness Protection Program there is another strand to this case the special counsel Robert Muller looking into alleged russian meddling in last years president ial election is examining former Trump National security adviser Michael Flynns under their lobbying for the turkish government its been alleged that flynn was offered large sums of money at the very least and lobby the trumpet ministration for the extradition of if not kidnapping himself and transport the cleric to ankara hes also alleged have been asked to get this legal case dropped now there are questions as to whether i will be able to provide any further information about turkish lobbying of u. S. Government officials like if they are and can provide documented evidence that would be a huge break in the fine investigation. But also possibly and i think this is the most. Interesting angle to the case is a potential criminal investigation of the president of turkey for violating irene sic iran sanctions. That could be what got him released with turkey describing this case as a tack on the country the trial is seen as yet another blue to u. S. Took relations already under strain. Of kristen salumi joins us now from new york kristen what can you tell us about what happened in court. Well merriam only one of the two defendants in u. S. Custody showed up at the courthouse behind me today he is the deputy c. E. O. Of holt bank the turkish state owned bank his name is matt attila and the judge did confirm today that he will be the on